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The Refuge
An old High school turned refuge for the weary and wasters wandering the Badlands Territory. With everything from a market to mercantile aristocracy the Refuge is a safe place to live so long as you are willing to conform to the rules. History For the good people of Fargo, North Dakota the Great War seemed to be some far off and distant conflict that they had no part in and had little wish to deal with. However, when the city's air raid sirens began to blare on October 23, 2077, the whole town began its evacuation procedure. As there were no vaults around the people of Fargo had to be contented to take shelter in the city's High School gymnasium just as they would during a flood or other disaster. With the help of local police, a good chunk of the city's populace was rounded up and moved to within the High School walls. As the gym doors were closed and bolted shut in the distance a small mushroom cloud began to form over the outlying suburbs of the city. As most of the people ducked and the shock wave and blast of the nuke rolled through the city they had every reason to expect more such detonations, however, they were surprised as the blast rolled past that a second and third detonation didn't follow. What they couldn't have known was that the bombing of their small city had been a mistake, a Chinese bomber had been flying overhead off to drop its payload of four nuclear bombs on Milwaukee and Chicago when it was shot down by an American interceptor and thanks to the bomb's safety systems only one managed to feel loose and detonate. For weeks the people lived within that gym, conditions were horrid as more than half the population were claimed by radiation poisoning, yet thanks to the efforts of the police and Firemen in with them rad-away and rad-x were distributed to the populace luckily sparing the survivors of a slow, painful death. The police finally decided to open the doors of the gym to the rest of the school and as they checked out the empty halls and classrooms, they determined that the school had low enough radiation levels for the rest of the school to be reinhabited. The populace finally left the gym and took over the school and soon the halls glowed with oil lamps and other electric lights. The school became the safe haven as families took over classrooms and the police became the de facto protection for the town. It wasn't long before others in the wasteland began to notice this shining beacon in the empty streets of Fargo and soon population of The Refuge began to grow and thus its name was born, and with these new people came the various wasteland merchants coming to The Refuge to sell their wares and many liked the security of the Refuge enough that they settled within the school. Soon several merchant companies were running out of the school and many more came to trade in the town bazaar, located in the cafeteria and with the money of their trade came power within the internal politics of the Refuge and soon a ruling class of Merchants had formed, they rule over the Refuge in a generally democratic manner even if the possible candidates are limited to those within the current leader's family allowing family's to rule for years. However, despite its flaws the Refuge is still the safest place to stay if you are looking to live and trade within the ruins of Fargo, the security keep the raiders and tribals out and merchants keep the economy of the town thriving. Even if you have to deal with occasional thug and of course, The Enlightened a group of "book keepers" as many people call them. More accurately, they are a group of former Brotherhood Scribes and initiates collecting, protecting and learning from books of the pre-war era for the knowledge they hold within. They have with the permission of the rulers have sent a small detachment of men to take over the school's library and have started to memorize and catalog the various novels, guides, reference books and magazines that have collected dust on the old book shelves with the aim of slowly moving them back to their main base of operations the Fargo city Library. Most people steer clear of these strange folk for their tendency to disintegrate those who they view might try to bring harm to their precious books. Notable Individuals *Chief Watson *Thomas Orwell *Squire Baxton *Ashley Wayne Category:Places Category:Communities Category:Badlands